The Babysitter

Coal

Coal's PoV:

Hi. I'm Coal. The oldest child on board Mira HQ. And very possibly the one you know the least about.

Yeah, sure, the others probably have their secrets too, but mine is almost definitely the biggest.

"Hey, Hey Scarlet?" I hiss, trying to make as little noise as possible, the fact that every time I moved dull, metallic thuds echoed through the halls did not help one bit.

I'd been looking for ages with no success, however I was determined not to give up.

"Coal?" A quiet voice croaked.

"Scarlet! Phew, thank goodness I found you!" I exclaim, following the sound of her voice.

"What are you doing, isn't it night time?" She asks

"Exactly" I grin, "nobody will know I'm gone"

I eventually reach Scarlet, sitting curled up in a tight ball with her helmet by her side. She smiles. "Fair point, I guess"

"What are you doing here? Aside from hiding, of course"

"Well..." she admits, "I kinda got lost. The vent systems are huge"

Yes - I am in the vent with Scarlet.
I'm also the child of an imposter.

"Are you okay?" I asked, before wincing at how stupid that question was. Of course she's not 'okay'!

Thankfully, she seems to understand that I had the right intentions. "Sort of..." she murmurs. "Teal th-thinks I'm going to k-kill her..."

"Oh no... you would never... she's your best friend, and you're the nicest person I've ever met! She must know that-"

Scarlet uncomfortably shifts from where she's sat. "But... does she really mean it? It could be from the shock, right? My mum killed hers, so maybe her judgement is clouded at the moment"

"Yeah, that's probably it" I assure her, not wanting to see her upset.

Yes, our parents technically did kill a lot of the crew. They didn't want to, though - it's the bad people's fault. That's all I know. My father had tried to keep me out of it as much as possible, so I'm not quite sure on all the details. I'm pretty sure that it was a company who didn't like NASA. An anti-space travel group of sorts.

Now of course I was young, but I was very alert. I knew my father... how do I put this..... wasn't going through the best of times when this happened. He must have been manipulated a lot to do this - honestly, he was a kind, caring and gentle person at heart. He liked asking big, unanswerable questions and talking in ways that didn't make much sense, quoting random 'famous' people who had been dead for hundreds, or even thousands of years. I believe he called it 'being philosophical'

Ay, it's not a criticism. I love my father more than I could ever explain with words.

There's only one person that I possibly care about more.

"Coal..." she murmurs, tearing my from my thoughts. "Our parents aren't bad, are they?"

"No, no way" I say, removing my helmet and placing it beside me just like Scarlet had done with hers. "They only did it because they wanted to protect us."

It was only then that I realised that Scarlet had shuffled closer to me, our shoulders were almost touching. Would a hug be welcome at this point?

Slowly, I place my arm around Scarlet's shoulder. She doesn't flinch or move away, instead leans into me. I take this as an 'okay' to tightly wrap my arms around her, squeezing her into a tight hug.

"You know, I think you'll be okay if you come back out. Lime loves you, you know that, and obviously my dad wouldn't hurt you either. Therefore Blue is outnumbered, you'll be safe."

"But..." she mumbles, "the rest of our friends? They'll hate me too - Lapis will agree with his mother, so will convince them that I'm evil, and it's not as if Teal needs any help believing that. My mother is the reason their parents are dead..."

"Scarlet, remember, Peach, Rose and Emerald all cared about you too!"

"But... your dad killed Rose and Emerald's fathers... and Peach's dad was killed by the crew, so they have no reason to hate me anyway."

"They didn't know that though" I remind her.

"I guess you're right" Scarlet murmurs. "If I come up though, will you promise to stay with me just in case?"

"I won't let them hurt you." I confidently declare. And I mean every word.

We each reattach our helmets, and begin crawling back through the vents.

"Uh..." Scarlet says, "where are we going?"

"I know where we are, don't worry" I assure. "Right now, we are going right under...... uhh..... umm....."

Oh that's just great.

"You're lost, too, aren't you?" She asks.

"Yeah..." I nervously admit.